Liukin approves of gymnastics' new tie-break rules

SAN JOSE, Calif. 
His jaw clenched, Chris Brooks climbed off the podium after his dismal parallel bars routine and headed straight for a hallway where no one could see him, ignoring the encouraging words from his friends and teammates.

Putting his hands on top of his head, there was only one thought in his head.

"Dude, that's it. It's over," he said.

Brooks is fighting for what is likely the last spot on the five-man team for London, and knew he needed a solid performance Thursday at the Olympic trials. But an awful 20-minute span could cost him when the selection committee sits down following Saturday's finals to decide the team. He got too much height on his vault and shot forward on his landing, needing to put his hands down. Then, on parallel bars, he got off-balance as he moved to work on one rail and began wobbling. He fought to save himself but couldn't and tumbled off.

After those few moments in the hallway to compose himself, however, Brooks made a nice recovery. He finished with his best high bar routine yet in three days of competition at the U.S. championships and trials, and second-best performance on floor exercise.

"It is what it is," Brooks said. "Time to move on."

He's in sixth place in the combined standings from nationals and trials, but is in the top five on only one event, still rings.

There's still one day of competition left, however.

"I don't think anybody's out," Brooks said. "You've got to get your head back in the game and continue to fight."

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BOOMER SOONER: Jake Dalton edged Jon Horton in the first day of the "Sooner Invitational."

One of the rotations in the men's competition is made up entirely of current or former Sooners: Horton, who led Oklahoma to three NCAA titles; Dalton, the reigning NCAA champion; Chris Brooks and Steve Legendre, who were both on the 2008 national champion team; and Alex Naddour, who won NCAA titles on pommel horse in 2010 and 2011.

Dalton posted the best score of the bunch Thursday, finishing with 90.550 points. Horton was second with 89.650.

Dalton and Legendre are the only ones left at Oklahoma. Horton and Brooks returned to their hometowns of Houston after finishing school, and Naddour left Oklahoma after the world championships last fall. But the Sooner contingent remains tight, and they could be heard cheering for one another and encouraging each other. Horton even helped coach Tom Meadows get the parallel bars ready for Brooks.

Though the Sooners know they're battling each other for spots on the five-man Olympic team, Dalton said it actually made it easier to compete together.

"It makes it better because everyone knows each other so well," Dalton said. "Maybe it makes us more relaxed."

Whatever Dalton is doing, it's working.

A member of last year's world team, he has the highest score on floor exercise and vault after three days of competition at the U.S. championships and trials, and is in the top five on still rings. While his floor routine is filled with an impressive mix of tumbling and twisting skills, it's the polish with which he does them that really catches the judges' eyes.

His landings are so secure he may as well have glue on his feet, and his lines would be the envy of any dancer. The 9.5 he got for execution Thursday matched the high mark of the day.

"He does really pretty gymnastics," Horton said.

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GOLD RUSH: Another Olympic gold medal would have been nice.

Family bragging rights would have been even better.

International gymnastics officials released new, simplified tiebreak rules that, had they been in place four years ago, would have given Olympic champion Nastia Liukin a gold medal on uneven bars. Liukin and China's He Kexin tied in the bars final at the Beijing Games, finishing with identical start values (7.7) and execution marks (9.025). But Liukin wound up with silver because of a convoluted formula based on deductions from the execution mark.

"I told my dad, `I would have tied you with the medal count!" Liukin said.

Liukin won five medals in Beijing, giving her one more than her father, Valeri. But as Valeri likes to remind his daughter, two of his were gold. In addition to her all-around gold, Nastia Liukin won silvers in the team competition, uneven bars and balance beam, and a bronze on floor exercise.

"That's the one thing that came to mind, I would have tied him," the younger Liukin said.

While it's too late to do her any good, Liukin said she is glad the rules have been changed. If there's a tie in event finals in London, the execution mark will serve as the first tie-break, followed by the difficulty score. If the gymnasts are still tied, that result will stand - even if it means shared medals.

"It's fair," Liukin said. "If you both tie, I think you definitely both deserve gold medals. It's so hard to break a gold medal."

The 22-year-old from Atlantic Highlands, N.J., secured the lone spot in men's trampoline during the Olympic trials Wednesday night, avenging a near miss four years ago.

"This was my time," Gluckstein said Thursday.

It wasn't, however, his little brother's time. Gluckstein's victory came at the expense of Jeffrey Gluckstein, who finished third at trials and was passed over in favor of Logan Dooley as the team's alternate.

The look of disappointment was visible on the younger Gluckstein's face at the end of Wednesday's competition, and Jeffrey actually spent the evening in a friend's hotel room rather than bunk with his big brother.

"I think he wanted to stay away from me for a little bit," Steven Gluckstein said. "It's understandable. Every time he sees me, it's going to be hard to remind him of what he could have had."

Besides, if Jeffrey had stuck around, he wouldn't have gotten much sleep. Steven Gluckstein said he napped for about two hours overnight but was simply too wired to settle down after completing an eventful four years that saw him win three national titles while trying to contend with his brother's ascension up the ranks.

Steven Gluckstein believes there's plenty of time for Jeffery, 19, to rebound in time for the 2016 Games. Jeffrey will likely join his parents in the stands in London, and Steven thinks his brother can use it as a springboard to better things.

"I hope this is a breakthrough and maybe over the next year he'll understand it," Steven Gluckstein said. "Everybody matures at a different time and I hope that this is his year to take that step up into what I call trampoline adulthood."

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OROZCO'S MOM: John Orozco's mother is feeling well enough to make the trip to the Olympic trials.

"She's doing OK," the U.S. champion said Wednesday. "She's here. Got in yesterday with my dad."

Damaris Orozco spent 10 days in the hospital before the U.S. championships with a uterine infection that had spread to her stomach. She left because her insurance ran out, and continued to recuperate at the family's home in the Bronx. Orozco said his family wouldn't tell him much about her illness, not wanting to distract him. But he was clearly relieved when his parents arrived in St. Louis for nationals, and he made a point of thanking his mother in a post-meet interview and saying how glad he was that she'd been able to see him win his first U.S. title.